Waller IS and Tomball ISD competed for the Regional Bilingual Speling Bee Championship on Saturday May 16, 2015 at 10:00am at Waller ISD Schultz Junior High Cafeteria. Elementary schools were represented. The Waller ISD Bilingual Spelling Bee is a competition full of excitement with a sprinkle of challenge and it is different from a standard spelling bee, Instead of being required to simply spell one word, a contestant must first spell a word in Spanish, then translate the word into English and finally spell the English word. As a parent, preparing your child for this competition takes dedication. Regardless the position in the contest, enriching the academic vocabulary of our children in both languages has a lifelong and invaluable reward. The purpose of the bilingual spelling bee is create a robust academic vocabulary in both English and Spanish to help our bilingual students to understand the relationship among vocabulary, reading, comprehension, and writing in order to be academically successful and a better social participant in our school community. (Anderson & Freebody, 1983) (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002).

The English as a Second Language (ESL) is a Waller ISD pull out model approved by TEA and designed for English Language Learners (ELL) who are still acquiring English language proficiency. The ESL pull out model enables English Language Learners to become academically successful in the comprehension, reading, speaking, and composition of the English Language. Courses for ESL students provide instruction based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and follow the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS). The ESL instructional program strives to meet the affective, linguistic, and cognitive needs of ELLs [19 TAC Chapter 89.1210(f)(g)].

Bilingual Education Program

The Elementary Bilingual Early Exit Program will produce bilingual and biliterate students capable of being full and productive members of our global society. The bilingual education program in Waller ISD is a full-time program of instruction in which both the students' home language and English is used for instruction by providing a full-time bilingual teacher certified under the Texas Education Code (TEC), §29.061(b). The amount of instruction in each language within the bilingual education program in Waller ISD is commensurate with the students' level of proficiency in each language and their level of academic achievement. Addressing the affective, linguistic, and cognitive needs of English language learners.
The goals of the program shall be to:

Provide a strong and commensurate English literacy component to prepare English Language Learners to take the STAAR test in English by third grade.

Provide an effective academic bilingual/bicultural program for all English Language Learners.

New Arrival Center Program

New Arrival Center (NAC) is a voluntary program at Waller High School in which students and parents choose to participate. The NAC program in Waller will receive recent immigrants and ELLs coming from other school districts with a beginning English proficiency level in their first or second US school year and do not show TELPAS progress. An ESL certified teacher will provide intensive English language instruction embedded into content activities and throughout specialized strategies and techniques (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2000). This program will accelerate ELLs’ English acquisition and cultural awareness. Daily lesson plans will be guided by English language proficiency standards objectives to address skills such as:

Waller ISD Adult Education prepares our community to acquire English as Second Language and GED Diploma in order to ensure that adults who live in the city of Waller have the skills necessary to function effectively in our society and be a partnership at home for our students.

-- FALL Semester 2016 will start on September 1 and end in December 2016.
FOR REGISTRATIONS students must come to Waller Junior High Cafeteria on August 16 and 17, 2016 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.
To reserve your spot access http://www.wcjc.edu/programs/adult-basic-education/index.aspx and click on AEL Registration Form
Contact our department to get further information.

UST is offering the opportunity to earn a Master of Education Degree in Bilingual/Dual Language. This is a cohort program in which you must attend class one night a week with 2 hours of additional work on-line. Waller ISD will host an information session on Wednesday December 1 at the Administration Building from 4:00 to 5:00 or you can contact Dr. Higinia Torres-Rimbau at rimbauh@stthom.edu. Click here to read more about this program!!

The on-line Bilingual and ESL Certification Prep Courses, offered by the Bilingual Education Program at Texas A&M University, can help Educators who participate in either of these continuing education courses to develop knowledge and skills for teaching English Language Learners (ELL). The Bilingual and ESL courses provide comprehensive coverage of the teacher competencies tested on the TExES Supplemental Examination Bilingual # 164 and ESL # 154. Scholarships are available for those who can qualify through Texas A&M University College of Education and Human Development Department of Educational Psychology. Click here to learn more about these and other programs.

Bilingual/ESL Resources

TEA- Texas Education Agency has created this portal through the Limited English Proficient Student Success Initiative (LEP-SSI).
The purpose of this Web Portal is to provide resources, tools, and materials to support the education to English Language Learners (ELL's) and can be used by teachers, administrators, and parents.
Educators and parents can access through this portal: state requirements and initiatives, streamlined video lectures, differentiated classroom instruction video segments, best practices for ELL's approved by TEA, and other TEA sponsored resources.

The Commissioner’s Rules Concerning the State Plan for Educating Limited English Proficient Students state that all school districts that are required to provide bilingual education and/or English as a Second Language (ESL) programs establish and operate a Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC).

ENGLISH: The Texas English Language Learner (ELL) Progress Measure provides performance expectations on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) content-area assessments for Texas ELL students. The ELL progress measure has been created specifically for Texas ELL students. It takes into account the time needed to acquire the English language and to fully demonstrate grade-level academic skills in English. The measure provides information to parents and teachers about the progress students have made even if they have yet to achieve Level II performance standards and pass the STAAR tests. Beginning in 2014, the ELL progress measure will be used for accountability, allowing campuses and districts to receive credit for ELL students who have made progress by achieving appropriate interim expectations each year until they reach the Level II performance standard on STAAR. The STAAR expectations take into account the level of English language proficiency ELL students possess, thus providing a more meaningful gauge of annual progress for these students than the STAAR progress measure.